Thursday, May 12, 2011

Billions With the Push of a Button

I read an interesting article about the machinery the wizards of Wall Street use to make their money. There is no heavy lifting involved, but a lot of advantages in liquidity and access are leveraged to the limit. These tricks aren't something you and I can benefit from. The other question is, are these systems being used to secure markets or game them? To safeguard stability or exploit instability? I don't need to tell you which impulse I think is dominant.

It augments the argument I've already put to you that there is a Rule of Accumulated Advantage* by which each advantage leverages other advantages, and by which all advantages accrue upward unless balanced by a different power (government) operating for the broader good, the public good.

Playing fields in America have never been so tilted.

*I'd love to collect more informed and expert opinion about this Rule of Accumulated Advantage. I'd be interested in your thoughts. It's something I've been writing and thinking about for some time, but it's difficult to gain expert insight on it. Partly because insight and expertise in these matters are proprietary, even to the extent of academics belonging to sponsoring corporations. Most economists who understand this arcane field belong to the corporations who pay them. But I also have the distinct disadvantage of not being an economist myself. I'm a writer and illustrator of complex ideas.